


You Can Be My Wingman Anytime

by thatdamneddame



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 19:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7545274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatdamneddame/pseuds/thatdamneddame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Attractive dog rescuer is definitely Poe’s type.</p>
<p>Or five times Poe does not ask Finn out and one time he does, no thanks to BB-8.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Be My Wingman Anytime

**Author's Note:**

  * For [prettyasadiagram](https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyasadiagram/gifts).



> Surprise, prettyasadiagram, I wrote you birthday fic! Happy birthday! I'm sorry it's not a too long epic of feels, but it does feature failboats, puppies, and your helpful Starbucks contributions. I love you best and this fic is a blantant bribe for your affection.
> 
> Thanks to metroelephant and withyourteeth for the beta.

1.

Poe is hanging fliers in the campus center when he first meets Finn.

“Hey, you lost a dog?” the very attractive undergrad says, watching Poe plaster the entire Community Event board with pictures of BB-8. Irish step dance will just have to wait until he gets his dog back.

“She slipped out of her collar,” Poe explains because it is vitally important that this guy knows that Poe is not a terrible dog owner. Poe is a great dog owner who is going to buy his dog a better collar like he should have in the first place instead of prioritizing textbooks over true love. “Have you seen her? White and kind of orange-brown shih tzu? She’s one of a kind.”

Mysterious and Concerned Undergrad has insanely kissable lips and very nice cheekbones and looks kind of like he’s working something out. Poe kind of hopes he’s working out to how to ask for Poe number so they can find his dog together and then maybe make-out a little in that weird alcove outside the bookstore. “Fluffy thing? Likes to cuddle?” Undergrad asks.

While this could describe many dogs, Poe is confident this guy is talking about BB-8 because 1. BB-8 is perfect and wonderful and 2. Poe is standing in front of a wall covered in pictures of his dog’s face so this guy 100% knows what Poe’s dog looks like. “That’s my girl.”

“I think I might have found her. Or, well, my friend did. Come on, I’ll take you.” Undergrad takes Poe’s arm and starts to lead him out of the campus center. Poe is kind of into it.

“Yeah, okay,” Poe agrees even though he mostly doesn’t have a choice. “Hey, do you have a name?”

The guy smiles and Poe kind of thinks that he’s discovered what all that love at first sight nonsense is about. “Yeah, I’m Finn.”

“Hi, Finn.” Poe says, feeling like a damsel in distress and also like he could fight a bear. “I’m Poe.”

The love at first sight theory is confirmed when Finn leads him across the green down to the labyrinth where a girl is reading under one of the willows, absently petting Poe’s dog by her side. Attractive dog rescuer is definitely Poe’s type.

*

Jess mocks him relentlessly for it. “You have a _jar_ full of phone numbers but you can’t figure out how to ask the guy who found BB-8 out for coffee?”

Poe has a jar full of phone numbers because he can’t figure out what to do with them; it would feel rude to throw them out, but he’s also not going to call most of those people back ever. Jess calls him a player, but it’s not Poe’s fault he’s got a decent smile and good hair. Okay, well, he works on the hair but he doesn’t do it for the numbers.

“He was with a girl! The girl who found BB!” he protests. “What am I going to be like, hey your love looks pure and true but I was wondering if I could take your boy out for some coffee and casual flirting?”

“Yes.” Jess says. “Exactly that.” BB-8 barks and paws gently at Jess’s arm. “See, Dameron? Even BB-8 agrees with me.”

Poe just throws his hands up. He saw the way Finn looked at the lady dog-rescuer; no way he was stepping in on that.

 

2.

BB-8 decides to pee on everything Poe loves during midterms.

“You know, I would have preferred to be at home too, buddy,” he tells BB-8. His apartment has all kinds of things like beer and comfortable chairs. It does not, unfortunately, have the book he needs to finish this paper, the one that everyone in his class needs that’s on reserve at the library and available nowhere else. An evening laundry run wasn’t exactly what Poe had in mind when he finally came back home, but hey, that’s life.

BB-8 wuffs sadly at him and then begins barking in earnest when the elevator doors open. Poe looks up and there’s Finn, clearly heading out for the gym, in dark grey sweats and a white wife-beater. Poe is very, very aware of the fact he’s holding a laundry basket full of dog pee soaked slip covers.

“Hey,” Poe says, not going to let something like crushing embarrassment get him down. “Finn, buddy, what are you doing here? Not a fan of dorm living?” The dorms aren’t actually that bad, so most undergrads don’t move out. At least, that’s the way it was when Poe was an undergrad, one whole year ago.

Finn looks sort of startled but there’s a smile creeping onto his face, so Poe isn’t too worried. “Last minute transfer. No one wants to be that weird, friendless junior on the hall.”

“Where’d you transfer from?” Poe asks because he is genuinely curious. He doubts that Finn will ever be the weird friendless Junior because Finn probably has eight hundred friends. There was that girl and also all Poe wants is to be Finn’s friend.

When Finn admits where he used to go to school, Poe laughs, “Oh, the dark side.” Finn seems to relax, like he was worried Poe would judge him for going to their school's biggest rival. Whatever. Poe’s not really about that. “If you hadn't, then who would have found my dog?” He smiles and Finn smiles back.

“She’s a good dog,” Finn agrees, reaching down to give BB-8 a pat on the head. Poe has been told in the past by many an ex that he is way too attached to his dog. He is not. BB-8 is wonderful and clearly Finn thinks so too, which means that clearly Finn is better than anyone else Poe knows. BB-8 wags her tail happily as Finn scratches behind her ears. Poe should really ask him out for a cup of coffee or dinner or marriage, whatever works best for Finn.

The elevator comes to a stop and the doors open to the lobby. “This is me,” Finn says. He looks apologetic. “I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah, buddy,” Poe says, heart in his throat. “I’ll see you.”

BB-8 whines softly as the elevator doors shut again. Poe sighs down at his giant laundry hamper stinking of dog pee. Maybe it wasn’t the best time after all.

Which is what he tells himself every time he runs into Finn, always running in opposite directions. But Finn always smiles and asks how BB-8’s doing, and if they weren't both rushing somewhere, Poe would ask him out. He really would.

 

3. 

Poe is three beers in when Jess looks around his apartment and says, “Where’s BB-8?”

“On her bed,” Poe says, pointing his empty beer bottle towards BB-8’s empty bed. “Or not.”

BB-8’s not in the kitchen or on Poe’s bed or chewing on his favorite pair of boots in his closet—her usual haunts.

“Well,” Poe decides, feeling significantly more sober now. “Fuck.”

Jess giggles because she’s the worst and she also started drinking before she came over. “Your dog keeps running away from you like this and people are going to think she doesn’t like you.”

Since alcohol doesn’t just, like, evaporate from the bloodstream, Poe is still drunk enough to think that Jess has a point. He should have bought BB-8 that memory foam dog bed instead of cheaping out. “I could have bought her Greenies,” Poe bemoans, looking at how his front door is slightly ajar, probably from when Poe had to bodily shove Jess away from propositioning the pizza guy earlier.

“Cheer up, fly boy.” Jess pats Poe on the head and takes another swig of her beer. “Maybe that hot undergrad will rescue your dog again.”

“Rude,” Poe tells her pointedly, wondering if one AM is too late to go door-to-door and ask if anyone’s seen his dog. She couldn't have gotten too far.

But then there’s a scraping sound followed by knocking, BB-8’s little black nose peaking around the door and nudging it open.

“BB! My friend!” BB-8 jumps into Poe’s arms and he’s going to buy her the best doggy bed money can buy. He looks up to see who did the knocking and there’s Finn, looking as kissable as ever.

“Finn, buddy,” he says, feeling amazed. “You found my dog. Again.”

Finn’s smile is the greatest thing that Poe has ever seen. “She was scratching at my door. Did she get off leash again?”

“I think she snuck out the front door when the pizza guy came,” Poe admits. He has no idea how BB-8 knows exactly where Finn’s apartment is. He has no idea how Finn knows exactly where Poe’s apartment is. Right now, he couldn’t care less.

Continuing her reign as the worst friend ever, Jess holds out her hand. “Hi, I’m Jessika.”

Finn’s smile goes away. “Finn. Well, I’ll be seeing you around Poe.” He reaches down and gives BB-8 a scratch behind the ears. “Bye, BB-8.”

“You’ve got hearts in your eyes, Dameron.” Jess says as soon as Finn disappears down the hall.

“He’s a civil engineering major who looks good in bomber jackets and keeps rescuing my dog,” Poe says, feeling no shame about it. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”

Jess closes the door. “Maybe ask him out, hotshot.”

BB-8 paws sadly at Poe’s leg. Jess probably has a point.

 

4.

Poe is working off his hangover the next morning at Starbucks with a quad shot Americano and an almond croissant. He has a blueberry muffin and he’s feeding pieces of it to BB-8 under the table because he figures if he bribes her with food then maybe she won’t run away again. He’d offered to buy Jess a breakfast sandwich, but she’d declined in favor of sleeping on his couch for the next three hundred years while making a sound not unlike that of a dying moose.

He’s just finished the croissant when BB-8 lets out a small bark and paws at his leg. “What’s going on, BB-8?” he asks, contemplating taking her to the dog bakery three blocks over because she’s precious and deserves expensive, fresh baked doggy scones. “Is Timmy down a well?”

BB-8 lunges a little toward the street, tugging at her leash firmly tied around the leg of Poe’s chair. He looks up and sees that BB-8 is trying to make a run for Finn, who’s crossing the street and coming their way. Poe can feel himself smiling before he can do anything to stop it.

“Finn, buddy!” he calls out, voice scratchy and too loud in his ears but it’s worth it for the way Finn lights up when he sees him.

“Poe!” Finn wanders over so he’s within easy talking distance. “And BB-8. Hey, girl.” He kneels down and holds out the back of his hand for her to sniff, like they always tell you to do as a kid. Poe has to manfully repress the urge to claw at his face because it’s too cute. BB-8 yips and waggles her fluffy butt in a little dance and Finn laughs, head thrown back and completely carefree.

“She’s a good girl,” Finn tells Poe with due seriousness.

Poe feels himself smile impossibly wide because guys like Finn don’t just come around every day. “Yeah, she is.” And Poe figures it’s now or never, no one is drunk and nothing is pee covered, so he asks, “Hey, do you want—”

“Finn!” comes the shout. It’s the girl who found BB with Finn—Rey, if he remembers correctly—leaning out of the door to Starbucks. “I got you that Oprah Chai drink you were eyeing. Get us a seat?”

Finn turns his blinding white smile on her. “Sure thing.”

“—to pull up a seat.” Poe finishes lamely. Poe might be more than a little head over heels in love, but he’s not an idiot. “You’re more than welcome to.”

“You don’t mind?” Finn keeps smiling bright and charming and Poe thinks that if he has to be Finn’s friend instead of his boyfriend then he’ll still be damn lucky.

Poe doesn’t mind and it turns out that Rey is an engineering wunderkind and also a delight. BB-8 spends the morning curled up on Finn’s feet, and he can’t fault his dogs taste at all.

 

5.

“Jessika Pava says that you’re going to the AIAA Propulsion and Energy conference too,” Rey says one day, approaching Poe as he leaves the morning TA session he leads. “And that you need a dog sitter.”

Poe does. Normally he’d ask Jess, but she’s being dragged to the same conference as him. “You know Jess?”

“She’s my TA,” Rey shrugs. “So, dog sitter?”

It took Poe a while, but he finally figured out that he knows Rey through Professor Organa, who likes to talk about her idiot ex-husband’s protégé. Rey’s pretty cool, Poe’s learned. She wears these great shitkicker boots and always keeps treats for BB-8 in her pocket. Poe can’t even be jealous about her and Finn and their perfect love because she is very clearly amazing. “You volunteering?”

Rey looks momentarily horrified. “No, Professor Solo is making me go too. But Finn’s in town and he loves BB-8.”

“You sure he won’t mind?” Poe has had boyfriends and girlfriends volunteer him for things before, but usually not taking care of a not-quite-friend-not-quite-acquaintance’s dog.

Rey looks at Poe like he’s crazy. “Are you kidding? He’d love to.”

Which is how Finn ends up at Poe’s apartment on a Thursday night looking more than a little overwhelmed as Poe goes through all the finer points of treating BB-8 like a queen.

“You can stay here, of course,” Poe tells him. Jess always stays in Poe’s apartment to dog-sit because although BB-8 would probably be happy anywhere as long as she had someone to give her belly rubs, Poe cannot stand the thought of her having to be away from her memory foam dog mattress or stash of Greenies. “It’ll be easier than hauling everything between your apartment and mine.” Poe finally figured out that Finn lives two floors above him in one of the terrible studios, right next door to the two Russian kids who don’t talk to anyone and listen to terrifying electronica at full blast all day every day. “BB-8 has her own bed, but she likes sleeping on your feet. And she really likes chasing squirrels, so make sure you keep an eye on her or she’ll end up dragging you across campus. I have it all written down.”

Poe holds up the standard set of instructions he printed up for Jess ages ago. It’s covered in her annotations that say things like _she's a dog, hotshot_ and _i drank all your douchey hipster beer_ and, Poe’s personal favorite, _you weren’t kidding about the walk schedule—she took a shit in my shoes_. Finn’s met Jess before, so Poe’s not really concerned what Finn will think. Besides, Finn is awesome and Jess is awesome, so Poe sees no reason to hide or shame the other.

BB-8 keeps bringing her favorite stuffed giraffe to Finn as an offering, but snatching it away and shaking it every time he actually tries to touch it. It makes Poe’s heart do this funny thing in his chest. He figures they’re going to be okay.

*

They are okay, but nothing prepares Poe for the pics Finn texts of BB-8 while he’s gone—BB-8 asleep on Finn’s lap or BB-8 chewing on Finn’s shoes or Finn and BB-8, faces smooshed together, wearing shutter shades.

“You’re embarrassing yourself, Dameron,” Jess tells him at dinner one night, Poe grinning ear to ear and texting Finn a nonsensical string of emoji. Poe feels entirely justified in flipping her off.

Rey, who usually only comments on someone’s life when it is directly disrupting her own, looks up from her food to say, “He’s as bad as, Finn,” a touch of wonder to her voice.

Jess rolls her eyes despairingly. “ _Yes_. Christ. You talk to him because I have tried.”

Rey takes a few contemplative bites of her pasta. “Finn likes your dog,” she tells Poe. “A lot.”

“Thanks,” Poe tells her. They both ignore Jess as she collapses dramatically, long hair narrowly missing getting covered in marinara.

 

+1.

Of course, even that doesn’t prepare Poe for when he comes home to find that all his sheets smell like Finn. And that Finn left this really sweet note about BB-8 on top of the container of cookies he apparently baked.

_He’s just so thoughtful???_ Poe texts Jess, half a bottle of wine and most of the cookies in. BB-8 keeps looking at her stuffed giraffe like it isn’t as nice now that Finn isn’t here to play with it.

_FINN REALLY LIKES BB-8 YOU IDIOT_ , Jess texts back. And then, in a flurry:

_EVEN THOUGH HE’S ALLERGIC TO DOGS_

_ASSHOLE_

_WHY DO I HANG OUT WITH YOU_

_YOU FLIRT WITH EVERYONE WHY CAN YOU NEVER FIGURE OUT WHEN SOMEONE FLIRTS BACK_

_BRING ME COOKIES_

 Poe stares down at his phone and then at the cookie in his hand. He looks at BB-8 who whines softly before laying down, head on her stuffed giraffe.

“Oh my god,” he says with dawning realization, “you were trying to set me up.”

BB-8 cocks her head to the side and looks sad for him.

*

Because his mama raised him right, Poe bakes lemon bars. Well, he corks the wine and makes himself the strongest cup of coffee he can first.

“I mean, I appreciate the help, buddy,” Poe tells BB-8, pulling out his grandmother’s recipe card along with the flour. “But maybe you could have run straight into Finn’s arms and left Rey out entirely.”

BB-8 barks at him, a growl at the back of her throat. 

“Sorry, sorry. I like Rey, I do. She’s great, you’re right. It’s not your fault I’m an idiot.”

BB-8 wags her tail and Poe pulls out one of the good treats—the ones from the holistic dog bakery on the other side of town—because she probably deserves something for all her hard work.

 *

He leaves BB-8 behind when he goes upstairs. This is something Poe needs to do by himself.

“Ma always said it was rude to return a dish empty,” Poe says as soon as Finn opens his door. “I hope you like lemon bars.”

“I love them,” Finn says. “But you didn’t have to.”

“Well, I wanted to.” Poe admits and Finn ducks his head to hide his blush.

When Finn looks up, there is something in his eyes that wasn’t there before—realization maybe—and he asks. “Do you want to come in?”

“I’d really like to take you to dinner,” Poe tells him.

Finn looks like his face is going to hurt from how big his smile is. “Yeah, I mean, yeah. Yes. Dinner. I’d really like that.”

“I’d also like to kiss you, if that’s okay,” Poe says, and he knows that Jess is somewhere in the universe, throwing up a little.

Poe doesn’t even have to wait for permission because Finn is already there, meeting him halfway, his lips as kissable as Poe thought they’d be. The lemon bars end up all over the floor, but that’s okay. Poe is going to make Finn lemon bars every damn day.

(And maybe take BB-8 to that Reiki for dogs place; she’s earned it.)


End file.
